New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-26
AN INFANT MURDERER.

Tho coso NJ the eleven wear old colored child
,vho has been tried by South Carolina jury,
eo,rd entity Of murder in the first degree, and
eontcnced IN be hanged has naturally excited
GOOD deal Of interest What kind of laws they
bo,,o In Soutb Corolina is the first perplexity,
the putting to the bar Of an infant being In itse
On strange n circumstance as to imply the exist
cnce i'm the State concerned OF system Oh Juris-
prudence differing fundamentally from thae 10
which the majority Of the American peopic "r0
toned 1t is true that when the moral coue ny
which the offences OF colorcd people AT the Sou'ii
have usually been judged is taken into accouh.'
il may be regarded as a concession 10 ciVihHcu
idcos TINT this child has been tried at all
Perhaps the more customary method would nave
been 70 lynch her promptly without troubling the
courts and perhaps also 1t would nave pcch
thought an evidence of exceptional humanity II
she had simply been hanged and not burned awe
There arc so many local pcculiaiities OF view
on these questions at the South that it is diff
cult TO know just how the tial and convection
Of the title colorcd girl would strike an average
Southern mind But il is not hard to realIe
how an average Northern mind regards the case
Certainty the deed OF the little prisoner was
most wicked and cruel i ing entrusted with the
care of n white baby and becoming tired OF her
charge. she killed the poor infant by giving u
concentrated lye. Beyond question thus was an
abominable thing TO do, and had the oiehder
been an adult the most rigorous punishment
would have been called for But child OF
eleven cannot be held TO the responsibility Oh
n crowr-up person She is in law ana IN iact
an infant, and all the more infantile because
belonging to a backward and partially deveiopeo
race The only presumption admissible III uhe
case is that the girl in killing the baby was
irresnonsible: that she did not and could not
realize what she was doing. Moreover land this
renders the proceedings had in the case the
more remarkably it is said that the httie
criminal Is only half wittcd. Fancy putting a
half idiot eleven years Of age on trlai Tor her
life. Fancy all the machinery of court being
employed for the conviction of such creature.
Fancy twelve grown men sitting solemnly to near
the evidence and 10 determine the measure OF her
guilt Fancy n prosecuting attorney denounclng
this baIf.wittcd infant, and in the name of the
people of South Carolina demanding her life as
an Offering TO Justice Could grmmer, sadder
travesty be presented? Then the finding OF the
verdict. An idiot infant declared guilty OF
murder in the first degree, which of implies
conscious malice intelligent premedtation and
all the train OF vigorous and sane cerebral
processes which 90 10 constitute the malignant
intent in tie most hardened criminals.
Surely they must be curious people In that part
Of South Carolina not 10 have been struck by the
bidcous absurdty and unreason OF the whole
proceedings. Possibly they were blinded oy
race prejudice Possibly they thought only OF the
fact that colorcd child had killed white
one Even then, however, IL is difficult TO
understand how the age and mental condition
OF the prisoner should have escaped notice, and
how the laws OF the State can have been strained
SD as to give even the semblance OF legality to
the trial II Is reported that since the con-
dcmnation OF the child there has been reaction
Of feeling and that efforts arc being made 10
procure n Communication OF the sentence ms
also is singular. IL appears TO imply that some
vigorous abnormal action IL necessary 70
prevent the hanging OF n child in the so-callcd
CIVILIZED State Of South Carolina. Are the South
Carolinians willing TO let it 20 upon the record
that chill hanging is one OF their institutions
and that they are too rhadamanthine in their
peculiar Justice 10 make an exception in the
case Of n hnlf-wittcd child? There are u great
many people M the North who awaiting
answers Ia these questions with an anxiety and
an emotion which may perhaps seem foolishy
sentimental 10 the kind OF men who see nothing
homogeneous. unjust inhumanc in the trial
for murder OF half IDIOT child Of eleven years.